Noteworthy News

A New Wave of Medicaid Expansion?

Post
on February 2, 2018

Spurred by the Trump administration’s invitation to states to apply for approval to make work requirements a part of their Medicaid program, a number of states that spurned the opportunity created for expansion under the Affordable Care Act may consider pursuing Medicaid expansion in the near future.

Currently, some elected officials in Idaho, Kansas, North Carolina, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming appear to be considering what they once considered unthinkable: making more of their residents eligible for Medicaid.

For the most part, expansion talk is coming from moderate Republican legislators who believe a work requirement may help soften the staunch opposition to Medicaid expansion among their more conservative Republican colleagues – and at this point it is all still just talk.

Ten states have already sought federal approval to establish a work requirement as part of their Medicaid programs and one state, Kentucky, has already had such a request approved.

Learn more about how a federal move to reduce the number of people on the nation’s Medicaid rolls may actually result in an increase in nation-wide Medicaid enrollment in this Washington Poststory.